This week, we look at ESPN s E:60 s look at WWE, along with other thoughts as I break off and think of other things as we go.
I took notes as I watched it online, as I took a nap before it and didn t wake up on time when it was showing on ESPN. Don t blame me if these aren t in exact order. I m paraphrasing most of what people said, I m not quoting them.
If you re interested in seeing what I m talking about, the link to it is http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4068016& categoryid=3060647 . Copy and paste that in your address bar or the bar towards the top of your screen, whatever floats your boat.
Pre E60:
I was kind of interested on what it would be, because WWE was advertising it. One had to wonder on whether or not they d actually let some things out, or if it would be a sissy. I know ESPN doesn t look up at wrestling (more than likely, down). The most they talked about WrestleMania 25 before this was on their show Pardon The Interruption, also known as PTI, where the hosts talked about whether or not Rourke was going to show up at Mania for about a minute.
I have to admit though, I don t particularly love ESPN because they seem to only love what they ve over hyped, hence why you don t see them jumping out of their seats in excitement when the Phillies (the MLB Champions of 2008) highlights are on, but you see them go nuts with Yankees highlights and conversations. In case you still didn t know, ESPN is an American television company that highlights the sports happenings of the day. Let s get started now.
E60
When they started, they interviewed John Cena and Big Show just a little bit, getting a statement or two about WrestleMania, except you didn t see the question, you saw the answer. Yeah, they put Big Show as his name. I get it s not his real name, but...come on.
Cena didn t appear in the rest of it that much, the Big Show only a little more. Show even said he spends 200 nights a year in his trailer, but that didn t seem like ESPN was trying to make an evil point like most people make about WWE.
They started out with Hulk Hogan making Vince look like a sellout. He said the guys said they were angry that it was being called entertainment, but now, kids and grandparents starting showing up, and they were selling hundreds of dollars of merchandise a night. I had a problem with this, because let s be honest, Vince picked Hogan to be an icon, which they don t exactly say, but they talk about if Mania was a failure, touching on Hogan being in Wrestlemania.
The interview with Vince (which was about seven minutes of the thirteen and a half minutes of the segment) was a very personal thing. Vince talked about how his step dad beat him, and the ESPN guy got up and asked about Vince saying that if his step dad hadn t died, that Vince would have done it himself, which is also known as murder. I can understand him though, as he says about his mother getting beaten (now known as domestic violence, or man on woman violence) and things along those lines.
Apparently his real dad came into his life when Vince was about twelve because he had divorced Vince s mother when Vince was an infant. When he did though, he wanted his son to be a lawyer, which Vince didn t like. It wasn t until Vince was 27 that he was given a shot at the business, and he did well with that shot, leading up to what it is.
We also learned that Vince s worth is about five hundred to seven hundred million dollars. One has to wonder (this wasn t on ESPN) how much of Vince s worth has come out of their pocket. Not just when you bought the t shirt online or at the show, but over the years of watching WWE. For example, let s say you buy one $20 ticket (or twenty euros, depending on what country you re from) for every time WWE is in your town, and you ve been a fan for ten years. If you live in a popular town, you ve spent at least $200. Multiply this by the millions of loyal fans to the WWE s product. This isn t even counting the people buying their merchandise. Sure, you have the costs, but WWE probably makes a good profit on this stuff.
Stephanie McMahon was also on, and she joked her biggest challenge is managing her father. She also said that the writers (yes, those people that at least once you ve called idiots) are from all walks of life, a real variety of people, coming from places like Conan and Hollywood. Pause that for a second.
Do we seriously have a person on the writing staff from Conan? Conan, in case you didn t know, is Conan O Brien, who hosts a late night show. It s comedy. Comedy. Yeah. This made me bang my head on my desk, too.
Then we had, well, we had one of those people on ESPN, well, let me break for a second..
I can t be the only person out there who hates it when he s wearing a wrestling t shirt outside, maybe taking a jog or walking his dog, and somebody comes up to you and says It s fake. I understand the big spots like Taker s jump onto the cameraman is choreographed. So are shows like plays and musicals. Why are we not calling shows like musicals and plays fake, then? I could care less if it s fake, it s entertaining, and it s better than most, if not all, of the crappy television we re being fed to us by networks. I m really cutting down on this rant I have here, maybe I ll talk about it next weak.
Now, ESPN didn t exactly have one of those people who call it fake, but they had Mike Munningham (I probably spelled his name wrong, I don t really care about him) point out that WWE wrestlers have no pension, no 401k, and that the guy who cleans out the arena has more benefits. When asked how they do this, he says they sign contracts for it, giving their rights away. I would have closed the video if they didn t say afterwards something along the lines that wrestlers get millions annually, which made me smile, showing that there are just people who only look at one negative part of it.
They showed the WWE Creative Staff Meeting, which was really neat. Michael Hayes (I think) was one of the readers in the segment, and they were going over WrestleMania plans a little bit. There weren t very many secret details, but I saw Triple H, what I thought was Ricky The Dragon Steamboat, and Finlay. It was interesting, because if you think about it, they have at least a couple of those a week, and it s there where it s decided what s going on our television screens.
They showed some of the neater parts of WWE, like Morrison let the ESPN guy try on his jacket, and it was really heavy on him. Miz s hat looked cool on him. I wish I could expand on Miz and Morrison, but I will next time...
There s apparently eleven cameras on RAW, and if you have a bad shot, you do it over again.
Bret Hart was on it, and he was one of the very worst people they could have on the show, because he ll never grow up about the Screwjob (surprised that wasn t on this show), and you know he s still a bit angry at it, as he gave ESPN the statement that there s only a couple of people in the 80s who didn t juice...Bret, get over it. I know this isn t really connected (the get over it part), but that s my thoughts on Bret Hart, and I never really get to say them.
They talked about steroids...and Benoit. As we all know, Benoit, a pretty good wrestler inside the ring, killed his wife and his son before killing himself one day. I remember the day before we found out (where Benoit didn t show up) as the day I really started hating Morrison before I opened my eyes and took a better look at him, because Morrison ended up beating CM Punk, and we never did get to see CM Punk vs. Chris Benoit, which I can say now would have made me care for the technical aspect of wrestling had I seen it.
They blame roid rage for the murders, since Chris had more testosterone than usual in him. Vince calls it the darkest day in WWE history, which kills me inside, because, he really was a good wrestler, and had he not taken steroids, he would have been in the Hall of Fame. If he didn t kill his wife and kid you know he d be there, and..it s like Pete Rose and the Baseball Hall of Fame. You know he won t ever get in because of his action, but he really was a good baseball player.
Vince says that WWE is entertainment, and they have drug tests because they re measured by a double standard, which I agree they are measured by.
They decided to move off of steroids by having Hulk Hogan talk about Vince like Vince is a robot or something, which is just weird.
Vince jokes that he s never not going to be in the picture, because he s never going to die.
That s the end of the E:60 segment dedicated to the WWE.
I kind of agree with Vince, he s about sixty three, and he really could go another ten years easily.
I m the Philadelphia Phighter, and I ll be back next week with some more thought.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Kalas. The Phillies games won t be the same without you.
TPP
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